From sometime D Magazine contributor Spencer Michlin:
Bill Hill, a creative powerhouse in Dallas advertising for more than 50 years, died last Thursday. Bill looked and talked so much like the handsome hero of a cowboy movie that few realized that he was a native of Pennsylvania.
The legendary art director and creative executive began his career at Bloom Advertising in 1956 and later founded Levenson & Hill, where he remained active until his death. Along the way, he helped change the face of Dallas business, winning awards and building his agencies and their clients, but it’s for his teaching skills and gentle wit that he’ll best be remembered.
Bill gave me my first job in the business, taught me well, and made it fun. About a thousand other ad veterans are remembering him and saying the same thing today. Incisively brilliant but unfailingly gentle, Bill was the kind of mentor who allowed young creative people the freedom to learn by making mistakes. But he was always there to save your bacon (and the account) when you went too far, and he could make you laugh as he did it.
The famous ad man Jerry Della Femina once said, “Advertising is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.” This may no longer be true, but to the degree that it once was, it was because of people like Bill Hill.
